A Sense of Space: The Crisis of Urban Design in India

Product Description Growing up in Bombay and Delhi in the 1950s, architect and urban designer Ranjit Sabikhi became interested in the question of space in India s context. As he taught at the Delhi Polytechnic Department of Architecture, which later became the School of Planning and Architecture, he realized that for the majority of the urban population, daily activities were carried out in the open courts, verandahs and terraces adjoining the minimal covered space that was their homes. Even the streets served as important meeting areas, and grew wider and larger to accommodate local shops and communal activities. The relationship of buildings to surrounding space was part of the natural process of growth of India s towns and cities, and yet did not figure in the official plans, which instead followed a rigid layout of roads, plots, setbacks, and fixed land use. So he started on a journey of exploration into what traditional Indian architecture was all about, what it meant to develop an indigenous new approach that was responsive to the country s needs, and what the meaningful solutions for India s urban crisis would be. In A Sense of Space, Sabikhi looks at urban concerns such as land, space and design through specific examples from projects he has worked on and how Indian cities, particularly Delhi, have evolved. This is a book that is the result of over fifty years of reflections that will inspire the new generation of architects, planners and anyone with an interest in India s cities to look at urban problems afresh and develop a new approach to urban design. About the Author Born in 1935, Ranjit Sabikhi is the Principal, Ranjit Sabikhi Architects. He was the Head of the Department of Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi in the 1970s, has written extensively on India s urban condition, and has been designing buildings for close to sixty years.